Cheri Parr

Cheri Parr

Jamba Juice opened in Half Moon Bay today. Regardless how you may feel about chain stores, it's something a lot of Coastsiders have been waiting for. The line was out the door.

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Julia Scott has a farewell article on Raman Bechar’s coffee and chai shop, which closes Thursday. She also notes that in addition to the hole this will leave in the community, the laundromat next door cannot be replaced.

At 5 a.m., he lets himself into his cafe, Coastside Gourmet Coffee and Chai, and starts grinding coffee for his first customers. There’s a line out the door by 6 a.m. and by 8 a.m., he’s served more than 100 cups of coffee, hot chocolate and his signature chai to customers who know him as well as they would a close friend.

On Thursday, Bechar’s coffee shop will open for the last time. He, and the laundromat next door, have been evicted in favor of a Peet’s Coffee.

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Opening a new laundromat in town is nearly impossible due to the scarcity and expense of sewer permits. And Chai, 72, says he is too old to start over.

The Coastside Certified Farmer’s Market favors local produce, reports the County TImes in a really nice profile.

When she first organized the Half Moon Bay farmer’s market in 2002, Coastside resident Erin Tormey made it her goal to give locals the experience of buying produce, crafts, fruits and flowers from their local farms and ranches. Now, Tormey is starting up a new farmer’s market in Pacifica with the same ethos and many of the same farmers. The market will be located at Rockaway Beach on Wednesday from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.

“My rules are that priority placement is given to county farmers,” said Tormey.
That attitude seems almost old-fashioned in the modern farmer’s market scene. At weekly markets in Belmont, San Mateo and Daly City, one or two local vendors compete with dozens of other farm products trucked in from Fresno, Exeter, and Santa Maria. Several farms offer the same items, which can cut prices but leads to better deals and more selection for customers.
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Frank Andreotti is one of two or three local farmers chosen to sell his artichokes, cauliflower, Swiss chard and zucchini at the San Mateo and San Carlos weekly markets. Andreotti Family Farm of Half Moon Bay has always subsisted on its relationship with the community at local farmers’ markets. Recently, that has become harder to do, said Andreotti.

The Coastside Certified Farmers Market is held Saturdays from 9am to 1pm at Shoreline Station, on the corner of Kelly and Hwy 1.

Coastside Certified Farmers Market is moving this year to Shoreline Station, from the Cetrella parking lot where it has been based for the last five years.  Organizer Erin Tormey plans to open the market as usual on the first week of May.

Tormey says she has “a huge debt of gratitude to Paul Shenkman and Dave Labuda of Cetrella for five years worth of trust and gracious hospitality.  Without their enduring support and commitment to community, this market would never have had the chance to come to fruition.” Owner Franco Carrubbia has made the Shoreline Station parking lot available free to the Farmer’s Market.

The Farmer’s market has made a conscious effort to limit its farmer base to the Bay Area “foodshed” and has given priority to growers in San Mateo County. The market’s first tier of local preference applies to farmers and fishermen from West San Mateo County.  In addition to local produce, the market features musical talent, and an audience that appreciates their work. Local artisans, dancers, and musicians appear at the market each week, as do a number of community groups.

Tormey is actively seeking volunteers to assist with Market this season. Contact Erin Tormey at 726-4895 or for details.

Coastside Farmers Markets

Half Moon Bay
Saturdays, 9 am to 1pm

Pacifica
Wednesdays, 2:30 to 6:30 pm

Julia Scott has a great profile of Farmer of the Year Dee Harley.  Although other women have received the award with the husbands, Harley is the first woman to receive the award herself.  In nine years, Harley’s farm has grown to 200 goats.

Harley’s operation personifies the way forward for local farmers if they want to survive in agriculture, said local flower farmer Stan Pastorino, who has hosted the Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event for nearly a decade.

“The few remaining farmers here have to adapt to the needs of the consumer and not the other way around,” he told the crowd of 300 in a lecture that emphasized the benefits of niche crop production and brand self-promotion in a crowded marketplace.

“We have to ask ourselves — are we providing a good product?” continued Pastorino. “Are we willing to change as the market changes? Are we marketing ourselves as well as we possibly can?”

A virus outbreak that has killed three horsed and quarantined several Coastside stables has also caused the cancellation of several horse events in the Bay Area, reports Lisa M. Kreiger in the County Times. Many newspapers across the country have picked up an AP story on the outbreak.

The chain of death is traced back to the Nov. 29 arrival of a shipment of five horses from Germany to New York. An animal headed to California died shortly after arrival. A racehorse at Golden Gate Fields in Albany died in December, forcing a quarantine at all three Bay Area racetracks.

The virus has since caused outbreaks in 10 states, killing expensive race horses, a famous Palm Beach polo pony and several pasture ornaments.

Between 30 and 50 percent of sick horses will die. Those that survive may take up to six months to recover.

No one seems to know how the virus came to the Coastside, but investigators are looking for the trail.

Fishermen gathered for a meeting with the California Department of Fish and Game in Princeton Monday, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. They’re concerned about restrictions the state is placing on fishing off the coast of California.

The first phase focused on the Central Coast region, from Ano Nuevo down to Santa Barbara, and recommended that the California Fish and Game Commission ban or strictly limit fishing in 18 percent of state waters out to 3 miles, or approximately 200 square miles. Of those, 90 square miles would be off-limits to fishermen indefinitely. The commission will vote on the proposal on April 13.

Officials theorized that designated ecosystem habitats, left alone, would eventually replenish themselves and the fish that depend on them.

But fishermen are skeptical about the science and about the impact on their lives. The state is looking for volunteers to serve on regional adviory board, which will pass its findings on to the state next year.

Dee Harley was honored with the Farmer of the Year Award, at the 38th annual Farm Day luncheon. Harley’s farm produces the famous goat cheese that bears her name. American Legion Post 474 Commander Russell Bisonette won the Ashcraft Award for outstanding Community Service. Mel Mello Jr., was awarded the Delores Mullin “Like a Rock” Award.

The award came with a special commendation from Gov Schwaartzengger, but in keeping with the Girl Power theme, it was presented by Jackie Speier. Gene Mullins was in the house, along with the full board of Supervisors, representatives from Leland Yee’s and Anna Eshoo’s offices.

Speier made a very strong speech, saying “The community’s relationship with the Peninsula Open Space Trust must be repaired.” She went on to say that  now that she has officially retired she will dedicate the coming year to doing “whatever I can to protect and preserve and support the farming community of the San Mateo County Coastside.  Call me. Invite me to everything that has anything to do with agriculture, and if I can get here, I will.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Harley is the first woman to ever win the Farmer of the Year award.  This was incorrect.

High rents and a lack of tourists are taking their toll on Half Moon Bay’s Main Street, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.  Businesses catering to locals are barely hanging on or have just left downtown—and those catering to tourists are facing relentless pressure.

“We’re hitting rock bottom here. We’re going to lose a lot of businesses,” said Nidia Nelson, owner of Nuestra Tierra, a Mexican Gallery on Half Moon Bay’s Main Street.

Nelson is one of several local merchants in prime locations along Main Street that normally benefit from gift shoppers out for a stroll on weekends as they search for jewelry, fine art or antiques. But merchants say the foot traffic isn’t there anymore, and many never recovered from the 20 percent slump they endured over Christmas. Then there are shop owners like Nelson, who are facing rent increases just as they near the desperation point.

Nelson opened Nuestra Tierra six years ago and has since spent $20,000 on capital improvements. Her rent, $3.25 per square foot, is the most expensive in town, and the landlord raises it every year. He told her that if she can’t pay it, others can, according to Nelson.

“And we won’t be able to pay it,” she said.

Twelve retailers closed their doors last year in Half Moon Bay and more chains—Popeye’s, Jamba Juice, and Peet’s—are moving in.  Chamber of Commerce CEO Charise McHugh is quoted blaming Coastsiders for not shopping locally. Locally-oriented merchants blame a plague of galleries for raising rents. The impact of the closure of Devil’s Slide is still debated. And everyone seems to be unhappy with their landlord.

“The chamber is doing the best we can to get the word out,” said McHugh. “We don’t have the power to tell people what kinds of shops they should open or tell landlords not to raise the rent.

The debate over the direction of Half Moon Bay’s downtown continues, but there seems to be no agreement on what the problem is, or whether there is even a problem.  The big retail chains understand that downtown is the next frontier. I visited Union Square this week for the first time in a couple of years, and it’s now more like Stanford Shopping Center with crosswalks than the shopping district of a world-class city.